UPDATE: The City Administrator responded with a letter confirming MPD’s overtime costs and supporting the reprogramming. The Mayor allowed this expenditure without notifying the members of the Council directly. Now, the District must foot the bill. 1/9 https://twitter.com/BrianneKNadeau/status/1320731042794397696

I intended to file a disapproval resolution, but over the last week I could not find a path out of the position that the Mayor put the Council in. A disapproval of costs already incurred would neither stop MPD from receiving payment for their overtime expenditure nor result 2/9

in those funds being immediately reallocated to human services priorities. Instead, it would require the Mayor to find a different,& potentially more problematic, funding source & it would result in the $43M reverting to the General Fund-not available for use for many months. 3/9

As a matter of principle, I am expressing my disapproval of this reprogramming. I express my disapproval to the idea that MPD’s reckless overspending and over-policing of our communities should be prioritized above health and human services programs. 4/9

Residents have been sprayed with chemicals, kettled and intimidated for exercising their first amendment rights. The Council has still not received the results of the investigation. This reprogramming is adding insult to injury, and it’s outrageous. 5/9

While we cannot reverse the existing MPD expenditures, we can strengthen the Council’s checks and balances to ensure the Mayor does not write another blank check to MPD in the future. 6/9

Today, along with @CMCharlesAllen and @RobertWhite_DC, I circulated the “Metropolitan Police Department Overtime Spending Accountability Emergency Act of 2020” to our colleagues at the Council. This legislation will require MPD to notify the Council when it reaches 5% more 7/9

than the approved overtime pay budget in a fiscal year, and to provide an overtime pay spending report for each subsequent month for the rest of the fiscal year. This legislation will help us increase transparency and accountability on police spending in the District. 8/9

. @CMCharlesAllen, Chair of the judiciary committee, plans to incorporate this emergency legislation into future permanent legislation. 9/9